{"id":277567,"date":"2022-10-13T18:32:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T23:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=277567"},"modified":"2022-10-11T18:18:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T23:18:58","slug":"mom-wins-ironman-world-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mom-wins-ironman-world-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom who gave birth just 18 months ago wins Ironman World Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An American won the women’s field of the Ironman World Championship for the first time since 1996 \u2014 and it was not only her first time competing, but she is a new mom who gave birth just 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

Chelsea Sodaro is the first American to win Ironman since 2002, when Tim DeBoom claimed victory, and the first woman since Paula Newby-Fraser won in 1996. But, even more incredibly, she’s only the second mother to have won the Ironman women’s field. And it was a win that no one \u2014 not even Sodaro \u2014 saw coming.<\/p>\n

“My mind is pretty blown right now,” she said in a video<\/a> shared by her sponsor, 2xu. “I think that I thought I would win this race one day maybe, but I did not think that it would be today.”<\/p>\n

She added, “I think it doesn’t really matter how big the race is; Skye is always the biggest gift waiting for me at the finish line. It’s pretty special.”<\/p>\n

When Sodaro discovered she was pregnant, she was in the midst of searching for a new coach to help her dominate the elite stage and had her eye on Dr. Dan Plews. When she asked Plews to work with her, she was nervous to share that she was expecting, worried he would turn her away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him I would totally understand if he didn\u2019t want to take me on because that was not part of, you know, the initial plan,\u201d Sodaro said in an interview earlier this summer with Triathlete.com<\/a>. \u201cAnd the first thing he said was, \u2018That is so exciting. That\u2019s the best news, I\u2019m so happy for you. And yes, I would still like to coach you, and how can I support you?\u2019 I think that\u2019s really unique for a male coach to respond that way, especially one who is so accomplished and so good at what he does. I just feel really lucky that he believed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sodaro trained while pregnant, a journey shared on Instagram, and was clear that her battle to take on Ironman was about much more than just a medal.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by PTO (@professionaltriathletesorg)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n